Startups

President Trump awards Big Tech donors with nation’s highest science prizes

Together, the awardees have donated nearly $6 billion to efforts tied to Trump and his administration.

Pretend you’re sitting at Elizabeth Holmes’ desk on this weirdly detailed website

With over a thousand emails, slides, texts, and documents from the United States v. Elizabeth Holmes trial, Extend engineer Bo Lau created a website that simulates what it might have been like to rifle through the Theranos founder's desk.

Fired OpenAI safety researchers dispute misconduct claims, warn of chilling effect

Three fired OpenAI safety researchers dispute allegations of mishandling sensitive information, warning in an open letter that their dismissals are creating a chilling effect on the company’s AI safety culture.

Watch the trailer for ‘The Altruists,’ Netflix’s show about the FTX scandal

A fictionalized Sam Bankman-Fried is coming to your TV screen on November 19.

Ben Affleck is an AI nerd, and the internet is impressed

Ben Affleck is going viral for his deep knowledge of AI, from neural networks and transformers to open weights. The actor, who sold his AI filmmaking startup to Netflix earlier this year, is proving he's more than just a Hollywood star.

Popular AI leaderboard Arena nearly doubles valuation to $3.1B valuation in 10 months

The company behind the popular LMArena leaderboard has raised $200 million led by Lightspeed and Khosla, and is now measuring AI models on alignment issues such as lying.

OpenAI’s revenue is reportedly $20 billion less than previously projected

It had previously been reported that the AI lab's annualized revenue was some $70 billion, but a new report claims it's a whole lot less than that.

Google brings agentic AI to Gemini, starting with businesses

Google is turning Gemini into an AI agent that can plan, execute tasks, and work across business apps and systems. The agent can delegate work to subagents, use multiple AI models, and even gets its own workplace identity, complete with an email address.

Anthropic changes usage policy to ban model abuse and election interference

Anthropic's updated usage policy explicitly prohibits users from repeatedly abusing Claude in extreme cases, though ordinary frustration and criticism are still allowed. The new rules also address election interference, deceptive campaigns, weapons software, and surveillance.

OpenAI’s math solutions aren’t meeting the field’s standards yet

OpenAI's flood of proofs deviated from the guidelines set by a group of mathematical researchers consulted by the frontier lab.

A startup founder who served time in prison is looking to court an untapped market: ex-cons

Richard Bronson, a former Stratton Oakmont partner who served time in federal prison for securities violations, has launched Commissary Club, a startup that uses AI to help people leaving prison find jobs, housing, community, and even dates.